Softpanorama (slightly skeptical) Open Source Software Educational Society

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Nikolai Bezroukov. Portraits of Open Source Pioneers

For readers with high sensitivity to grammar errors access to this page is explicitly prohibited :-)

Chapter 4. Part 4:
Big Business and Linux

• Sun under the Linux siege

• IBM marry Linux to outsourcing

• Intel in its role of "grave digger" for old Unixes
   

• FreeBSD in Trouble Again: WindRiver saga
   

In June 2004 ItWorld.com conducted an informal poll. It consisted with just one question: "Has open source sold its soul?". Here is the text:

Do you think that the embrace of open source by big companies has killed
the movement's idealistic drive?

* No - the movement is still going strong, and is transforming corporate
cultures from the inside
* Yes - the revolution has turned into just another way to make money
* A lot of it's about cash now, but you can still set up your own
project that reflects your ideals
* Hey, I've always been in it for the money

Let us know!
http://itw.itworld.com/GoNow/a14724a105841a75978418a14

Here are the results as of July 1, 2004:

POLL: Do you think that the embrace of open source by big companies has killed the movement's idealistic drive?
49.1%  No - the movement is still going strong, and is transforming corporate cultures from the inside
25.9%  Yes - the revolution has turned into just another way to make money
17.2%  A lot of it's about cash now, but you can still set up your own project that reflects your ideals
7.8%    Hey, I've always been in it for the money

While definitely unscientific, the results above suggest that more then a half correspondent think that open source (to be more exact commercialized GPL-based software including Linux, but excluding Apache and all BSD-based projects like FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, etc) became a puppet in big corporate games ("sold its soil"). This part of the chapter contains my investigation into the process. 

Different players play Linux card differently and the litmus text here was thier outsourcing efforts. For example IBM who was in the vanguard of outsourcing played Linux card extremely well. The same is true for Oracle. On the opposite side of the spectrum Sun has difficulties to adapting to the "brave new world". 

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